January 2008

President’s Message

Happy New Year!

Still working out the cobwebs from the holidays? Need to fine-tune your molding skills? Sign up today for this month’s (Friday, January 11) special training class “Scientific Molding” by John Bozzelli. Registration is at www.spe-stx.org/MeetingRegistration.cfm?MID=27

This program is highly recommended by our members who have participated in the past. Bozzelli begins by acknowleding the integral role of part design, material selection and handling, mold design and construction, and processing. These aspects must be optimized for maximum sustained productivity. Specifically, with regard to processing, the technique determines standard plastic temperatures, flow rates, and pressures, as well as cooling rates and times. Set points are based on the measureable material characteristics such as viscosity and heat capacity.

Learn more about the approach at www.scientificmolding.com. And then be sure to sign up today!

Looking ahead to February, 2008, SPE offers a greatly expanded Topical Conference opportunity for South Texas. This year, the Polyolefins Conference will be co-located with the Flexible Packaging Conference for 30% more content. The SPE seminar series, PolyTech, will also be located at the Greenspoint location to provide in-depth training on several topics. Register for the conference at www.spe-stx.org/PolyolefinsRegistration.cfm and for the seminars at www.4spe.org/training/seminars/polytech08/index.php

In 2007/2008, we're adding a lot more variety to the “offerings” from the SPE South Texas Section. We’d appreciate your feedback on if and how these changes add value to your membership. We’d also appreciate your suggestions for additional ideas. Please send me your thoughts: donna.s.davis@exxonmobil.com.

Thanks, and have a rewarding 2008, building your professional skills and network.

Sincerely,

Donna S. Davis
SPE – South Texas Section President 2007-2008

Plastics Information: Check it Out

Since the Houston Public Library on McKinney St is essentially closed for remodeling, you cannot go there to browse for books on plastics/polymers. However, go to their catalog at www.hpl.lib.tx.us and arrange to pick up books at a branch library.

The Fondren Library at Rice University has the most complete collection of books on plastics and polymers. This is also a prime resource for patent and trademark information, as well as other US Government documents. You cannot check out books there unless you join Fondren Library [$50], but you can arrange for books to be sent to your library by inter-library loan. Use their catalog at www.rice.edu/fondren/.

The next best place to browse is at the MD Anderson Library at the University of Houston central campus. South Texas Section has donated many plastics books to this library. If you plan ahead, you can get a TexShare library card from a library where you are a member, which will allow you to check out books from any U of H library. Their catalog is at www.library.uh.edu/.

Bulletin Board

Upcoming Topical Conferences (TopCons)

Fundamentals of Plastics Bonding
e-Live™ Presentation
January 9, 2008
New York 11am / Los Angeles 8am/ London 4pm / Paris 5pm
Contact: SPE e-Learning Center / PH: +1 203-775-0471 / FX: +1 203-775-8490
elearning@4spe.org

Plastic Material Selection
e-Live™ Presentation
January 16, 2008
New York 11am / Los Angeles 8am/ London 4pm / Paris 5pm
Contact: SPE e-Learning Center / PH: +1 203-775-0471 / FX: +1 203-775-8490
elearning@4spe.org

Polymers – Taking Stock of the Past, a Look at the Present, and Pondering Future Growth and Challenges
e-Live™ Presentation
January 17, 2008
New York 11am / Los Angeles 8am/ London 4pm / Paris 5pm
Contact: SPE e-Learning Center / PH: +1 203-775-0471 / FX: +1 203-775-8490
elearning@4spe.org

Development of a Tool to Measure Bond-line Read-through
Best of Automotive Conference 2007
e-Live™ Presentation
February 6, 2008
New York 11am / Los Angeles 8am/ London 4pm / Paris 5pm
Contact: SPE e-Learning Center / PH: +1 203-775-0471 / FX: +1 203-775-8490
elearning@4spe.org

Injection Molding of Medical Devices
SPE Caribbean Section MiniTec
February 21-22, 2008
Four Points Hotel, Caguas, Puerto Rico
Contact: SPE Conference Department
PH: +1 203-775-0471 / FX: +1 203-775-8490
conferences@4spe.org

Polyolefins Conference, FlexPackCon, and PolyTech Seminars
February 24-28, 2008
Wyndham Hotel
Houston, TX USA
Contact: SPE Conference Department
PH: +1 203-775-0471 / FX: +1 203-775-8490
conferences@4spe.org

Thermoplastic Concentrates 2008
February 25-27, 2008
The Crowne Plaza San Marcos Resort Phoenix, AZ, USA
Contact: AMI
Margit Korsak
PH: +1 610-478-0800
mk@researchami.com
www.amiplastics.com

Polymer Nanocomposites
March 2-4, 2008
Lehigh University
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania USA
Contact: SPE Conference Department
PH: +1 203-775-0471 / FX: +1 203-775-8490
conferences@4spe.org

PTC Staff and Students

The Section Education Committee supports the Texas A&M Polymer Technology Consortium (PTC) on an annual basis, and the PTC Polymer Lab is named the South Texas Section, SPE Lab. Here’s a recent holiday photo of the staff and students working with the PTC this year.

Education Corner

by Mark Demark

Carlos De La Rosa, Product Development Manager for Reef Industries here in Houston, has taken over as Essay Contest Coordinator from Carlos Lotero who had to leave for family reasons and Wayne Derrick a retiree who found himself with too much on his plate. The South Texas Section Essay Contest is the first phase of the SPE International Essay Contest. We solicit essays on the “Wonders of Plastic” from middle and high school students. The essays are between 500 and 1000 words long, in English on 8-1/2 x 11 paper with I inch margins all around, more information and copies of past winning essays can be found at our web- sites www.spe-ste.org and www.4spe.org. Carlos will be updating the SPE-STX web-site shortly with the 2008 due date and “send to” information.

Members of SPE-STX will work with Carlos to judge the essays received to pick the local winner and runners-up. Authors of the runners-up and winning essays will receive $250 for themselves and $250 for their sponsoring teacher and their essays will be printed on our web-site and newsletter. The winning essayist will have their essay entered into the SPE International contest representing the SPE-STX. The winner of that contest will receive $1,000 and their school will receive $1,000 and their Essay will be printed in Plastics Engineering Magazine. Mark Thompson our SPE-STX winner from Humble High School won the 2006 International Contest. In 2007 the SPE-STX had a winner and six runners-up.

If any of you would like to be part of the fun judging the 2008 contest and awarding the prizes and/or if you would like a middle or high school contacted about having their students enter this contest contact Carlos at cdelarosa@reefindustries.com or 713.507.4332.

Frank Padula Memorial Endowment

Dear Scholarship Donor/s

I, Ravi Maranganti, would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your generosity in funding the Frank Padula Memorial Scholarship Endowment. I am very honored to be the recipient of this award.

I am currently a 3rd year PhD student in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Houston. My thesis advisor is Dr. Pradeep Sharma, Asst. Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department, University of Houston. Over the past couple of years, we have been conducting research to investigate size-dependent mechanical/electronic properties of materials at the nanoscale. In the course of this research, we have found that polymers (in particular polyethylene) exhibit some very interesting size-dependent phenomena at the nanoscale. You will be glad to know that this work has also led to two journal publications in the past few months.

Receiving this scholarship has motivated me to further investigate several interesting research avenues that polymers have to offer, especially in the area of nanotechnology. I thank you once again for making this scholarship available to me and I also thank the panel of reviewers for the Frank Padula Memorial Endowment Scholarship for having recommended me for the scholarship.

Thanking you.

Yours faithfully,

Ravi Maranganti
24th May, 2007.